As an uncontrollable place dropper, I have found in Bhutan the ultimate place to drop. This Himalayan kingdom of a million people, wedged between India and Tibet, is remote, exotic and, best of all, will not let in more than 1,500 tourists a year....

TREKKING, watching religious festivals and tasting yak meat and the world's hottest chilies were on the to-do list when my wife, Carrie, and I visited Bhutan, the Himalayan kingdom wedged between Tibet and India, in the fall of 2000. As avid golfers,...

WE stopped for our picnic of boiled eggs, roast potatoes and cheese on the rim of the Phobjika Valley, not far from where the road vanishes into the shadow of the Gantey monastery. The essence of Bhutan, the last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom, was all...

We stood fidgeting at the edge of the trail, acting more like schoolchildren than seasoned travelers. The advance man for the royal party came bouncing down the path carrying a walkie-talkie. A redstart -- a crimson and black bird with white cap --...

By MOANA TREGASKIS; Moana Tregaskis is a Honolulu-based writer who reports frequently on the Pacific and south Asia

LEAD: Cradled in a great sling of the southern Himalayas, the ancient Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan is held separate by its formidable mountains. To east and west are Indian hill states, to the south the plains of India and to the north the bleak and...

THE Himalayas are to other mountains what wild animals are to those kept penned in a zoo. Vast and solid though they are, they have a curious insubstantiality, the ability to lose themselves behind clouds, to appear, then disappear again in seconds...